Healing in the Face of Violence: Indigenous Women, Traditional Medicine, and Resistance

Post-Colonial Violence, Indigenous Women, and Traditional Medicine

The relationship between violence against Indigenous women and traditional medicine is deeply rooted in historical, cultural, and systemic forces. Across many Indigenous nations, women have traditionally held roles as healers, knowledge keepers, and community leaders. These positions of influence and care have often made them targets—both historically during colonization and in contemporary times. Today, violence continues not only against Indigenous women engaged in activism—particularly those resisting extractive industries—but against Indigenous women more broadly, who face disproportionately high rates of violence across their lifetimes.

Despite colonialism’s assault against traditional knowledge and women as keepers of that wisdom across the world, traditional medicine and its practitioners prevail. In fact, the majority of the world’s population continues to utilize some form of traditional healing arts, despite the dominance of Western biomedicine and the Global North’s control over medical discourse. This persistence reflects not only the resilience of Indigenous healing practices but also the continued relevance of community-based, land-rooted care.

Historical & Cultural Context

Colonization and the imposition of Western epistemologies profoundly disrupts Indigenous ways of being, especially relational worldviews that understand the body, health, and identity as deeply interconnected with the land. Upon contact, Catholic-led campaigns began to  criminalize traditional medicine, ritual practices, and other expressions of Indigenous spirituality, framing them as threats to dominant notions of faith and reason. These practices are central to cultural identity and health.

What followed was rapid land dispossession, cultural erasure, and systemic efforts to sever ties between Indigenous peoples and their languages, kinship structures, territories, and ancestral memory—resulting in intergenerational trauma that continues to shape Indigenous realities today. Women are central to these cultural and spiritual systems, and suffer under imposed patriarchal norms that erase gender complementarity and also become direct targets of repression. As healers and leaders, they embody authority and cultural continuity—and thus, colonial regimes seek to silence them.

One of the most devastating expressions of this violence against women occurred through church- and state-sponsored Indian boarding schools across the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. These institutions aimed to forcibly assimilate Indigenous children by removing them from their families, banning their languages, and severing them from traditional knowledge systems. The intergenerational effects include deep cultural dislocation, loss of ceremonial knowledge, and widespread mental health trauma still felt in Indigenous communities today.

In Aotearoa (New Zealand), policies like the Tohunga Suppression Act of 1907 explicitly banned traditional Māori healing practices. By targeting tohunga—spiritual and medicinal experts—colonial governments criminalized sacred roles and attempted to sever Māori people from their ancestral medicines. These legal efforts, underpinned by racism and cultural superiority, were part of broader strategies to erase Indigenous knowledge and supplant it with Western science and religion.

Contemporary Realities

The legacy of colonialism persists in modern violence against Indigenous women—particularly those who defend their lands, culture, and communities. Traditional knowledge keepers, healers, and environmental defenders often face threats, harassment, and even murder.

One well-known example is Berta Cáceres, a Lenca environmental activist from Honduras who was assassinated in 2016 for her resistance to the Agua Zarca Dam. The dam threatened to displace Indigenous communities and destroy sacred waterways vital for cultural and spiritual practices, including traditional medicine. Despite receiving international recognition and protective measures, Cáceres was murdered in her home after years of threats. Her case is emblematic of the dangers faced by Indigenous women environmental defenders who challenge powerful economic interests.

In Mexico, Indigenous parteras (midwives) in rural areas face increasing marginalization from the state and discrimination within formal health systems. Many are forced to work informally or in private due to restrictive regulations and a lack of institutional support. In some regions, midwives have reported harassment from medical personnel and systemic barriers that criminalize or devalue their knowledge. This abandonment echoes colonial suppression of Indigenous healing, now perpetuated by modern health policies that undermine traditional practices and erode community care structures.

These examples are not isolated—they reflect broader global patterns. When Indigenous women step into roles as land defenders, community healers, or cultural knowledge keepers, they face heightened scrutiny and risk. The implications are severe: the loss of elders and healers not only endangers the health and cohesion of communities but also weakens efforts to preserve and pass down traditional knowledge systems. Moreover, when state institutions fail to protect these women—or actively work against them—it reinforces structures of dispossession and silencing.

Traditional Medicine as Resistance

The revitalization of traditional medicine is a means of healing, and a form of cultural resistance. Reclaiming the role of healer—often passed down through matrilineal or community-based knowledge—is an act of survival and resurgence. These practices root health in kinship with the land, with ancestors, and with collective memory. In continuing these lifeways, Indigenous women assert both sovereignty and resilience in the face of ongoing violence.

This resistance is not merely symbolic—it is embodied in the resurgence of plant medicine, in birthwork rooted in ceremony, in collective healing circles, and in land-based knowledge transmission. For many communities, returning to ancestral ways of healing is a political act that defies the erasure of colonial institutions and reclaims the future on their own terms. Traditional medicine strengthens not only individuals but also collective identities, grounding the community in a worldview where care is reciprocal, and healing is relational.

Conclusion: Centering Indigenous Women

Protecting Indigenous women is inseparable from protecting land, knowledge systems, and cultural futures. They are not only disproportionately impacted by colonial and extractive violence, but also essential leaders in movements for healing and justice. From midwives to environmental defenders, Indigenous women carry and transmit life-sustaining knowledge—often at great personal risk.

As we address the legacies of colonialism, it is essential that Indigenous women are centered in all decolonial, environmental, and cultural revitalization efforts. Supporting their work, amplifying their voices, and protecting their safety is an act of solidarity and a necessary step toward collective liberation and planetary healing.

References

Amnesty International. (2022, March 2). A seis años del asesinato de Berta Cáceres: Las autoridades hondureñas deben garantizar justicia integral. Amnesty International España. https://www.es.amnesty.org/en-que-estamos/blog/historia/articulo/6-anos-del-asesinato-berta-caceres/

Cervantes, L. (2021, December 7). How natural birth became inaccessible to the poor. SAPIENS. https://www.sapiens.org/biology/indigenous-midwives-mexico/

Dhillon, C. M. (2020). Indigenous feminisms: Disturbing colonialism in environmental science partnerships. Sociology of race and ethnicity, 6(4), 483-500.

Gameon, J. A., & Skewes, M. C. (2020). A systematic review of trauma interventions in Native communities. American journal of community psychology, 65(1-2), 223-241.

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